• Overview
• Dependencies
• External Libraries
• Common Lisp Packages
• Download & Installation of LISPBUILDER-SDL
• Windows
• OS X
• Linux
• BSD
• Download and Installation of the Optional Packages
• SDL_gfx
• SDL_image
• lispbuilder-sdl-mixer
• lispbuilder-sdl-ttf
• Windows Build Instructions
• Linux Build Instructions
• lispbuilder-sdl-net

Overview

The most commonly used Common Lisp development environments are the Open Source:

• SBCL, and
• CLISP

This section describes how to set up a working installation of these systems for Windows, OS X and Linux such that the examples in LISPBUILDER-SDL and helper will load and run.

Dependencies

External Libraries

The LISPBUILDER-SDL packages rely on several external dynamic linked libraries. These libraries are not included in the LISPBIULDER-SDL packages unless installation is via the Lisp Starter Kit. These libraries must be installed prior to loading any of the LISPBUILDER-SDL packages.

Common Lisp Packages

• ASDF is pre-installed for users of SBCL, OpenMCL, ECL, ACL, or Lispworks using Edi Weitz's Lisp Starter Pack. Otherwise, please refer to ASDF README for installation instructions.
• CFFI can be automatically downloaded and installed when using ASDF-INSTALL. Otherwise, please refer to the official installation instructions.

Download & Installation of LISPBUILDER-SDL

The latest version can always be obtained using Subversion. Use the instructions to sync to the latest version by clicking the Source tab above.

Windows

• See Windows Installation.

OS X

In addition to downloading and installing LISPBUILDER-SDL, you need to install the SDL framework available here. To use SDL you first need to compile the OS-X specific helper library located in "lispbuilder-sdl/cocoahelper"; just cd to this directory and type "make". Then before trying to run any SDL programs you need to load the cocoahelper package:

(asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op :cocoahelper)

This creates an instance of NSApplication that serves as a bridge between SDL and Cocoa, similiar to that used by the Python project Pygame. If this is successful, you should see the icon for a generic OS-X ap appear in your dock.

Linux

These instructions have been tested with the following version of Ubuntu and SBCL. Please open an issue or just email the project maintainers if you have difficulties with other versions.

Ubuntu 2.6.24 using SBCL 1.0.15

If you don't have SBCL then install that first. You should get slime and emacs too.

sudo apt-get install sbcl slime emacs

Once that is installed open up emacs. You need to add the following your .emacs to have SBCL and SLIME work. You'll need to change the path of slime from the one below, to where the slime package installs. In my case I just download the latest version of slime to that folder.

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/slime/")
(load "slime.el")

(slime-setup)
OR FOR LATER VERSIONS OF SLIME...
(slime-setup '(slime-repl))

(setq inferior-lisp-program "sbcl")

Once in emacs just type M-x slime to get sbcl running.

Now we need to install some dependencies. Lispbuilder-SDL uses CFFI; a portable way to interface with other programs. If SBCL installed correctly then you need to type the following to install CFFI using ASDF:

(require 'asdf)
(require 'asdf-install)
(asdf-install:install :cffi)

If everything is OK you should see a text menu:

CL-USER> (asdf-install:install :cffi)
Install where?
1) System-wide install: 
   System in /usr/local/lib/sbcl/site-systems/
   Files in /usr/local/lib/sbcl/site/ 
2) Personal installation: 
   System in /home/justinhj/.sbcl/systems/
   Files in /home/justinhj/.sbcl/site/ 

I usually install just for me by hitting 2. If everything is ok, ASDF-INSTALL will go the cliki web site and download the latest release of the CFFI package. It is dependent on babel , alexandria, trivial-features.

If you get GPG errors whilst it downloads, you either hit 0 to ignore, which is a potential security risk, or go to and GPG to find out about GPG.

Now you need to get the latest lispbuilder from svn. See http://code.google.com/p/lispbuilder/source/checkout

As a final step, at runtime we need to tell ASDF where the lisbuilder code is, and load it up.

(pushnew "/home/justinhj/lispbuilder/trunk/lispbuilder-sdl/" asdf:*central-registry* :test #'equal)
(pushnew "/home/justinhj/lispbuilder/trunk/lispbuilder-sdl-mixer/" asdf:*central-registry* :test #'equal)

(asdf:oos 'asdf:load-op 'lispbuilder-sdl)
(asdf:oos 'asdf:load-op 'lispbuilder-sdl-examples)

If that all works you can now try an example:

(lispbuilder-sdl-examples:mandelbrot)

BSD

Download and Installation of the Optional Packages

SDL_gfx

Many drawing functions can be sped up if SDL_gfx is installed SDL_gfx. Windows/Mac users should download and install the binaries from SDL_gfx. Linux users should use their package managers to install the RPM's or DEBs.

SDL_image

SDL_image when installed will add support for many more image formats to LISPBUILDER-SDL than just BMP. Windows/Mac users should download and install the binaries from SDL_image. Linux users should use their package managers to install the RPM's or DEBs.

lispbuilder-sdl-mixer

SDL_mixer must be installed in order for LISPBUILDER-SDL-IMAGE work. Windows users can use Edi Weitz's Lisp Starter Pack to install this library. Otherwise, Windows/Mac users should download and install the binaries from SDL_mixer. Linux users should use their package managers to install the RPM's or DEBs.

lispbuilder-sdl-ttf

• SDL_ttf must be installed in order for LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF work. Windows users can use Edi Weitz's Lisp Starter Pack to install this library. Otherwise, Windows/Mac users should download and install SDL_ttf from here. Linux users should use their package managers to install the RPM's or DEBs.
• In addition a glue library lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue must also be installed in the library search path. lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue wraps the font rendering functions in SDL_ttf as these functions require struct passing by value; CFFI only supports passing structs by reference. Windows users can use Edi Weitz's Lisp Starter Pack to install the glue library. Otherwise the glue library must be built as follows;

Windows Build Instructions

To build the glue library:

1. A working installation of MingGW is required.
2. Make sure that the path to the include files for SDL and SDL_TTF are specified correctly in LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/Makefile.mingw. Do this by modifying the line SDL_TTF_CFLAGS=$(CFLAGS) -ISDL-1.2.11/include -ISDL_ttf-2.0.8.
3. In the LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/ directory, execute make to create the glue library.
4. If the build is successful, the lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue library will be found in LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/BUILD/.
5. Copy or move the file LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/BUILD/lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue.dll to LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/BIN/lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue.dll

Linux Build Instructions

To rebuild the glue library:

1. In the LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/ directory, execute make to create the glue library.
2. If the build is successful, the lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue library will be found in the LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/BUILD/ directory.
3. In the LISPBUILDER-SDL-TTF/ directory, execute make install_ttf to install the lispbuilder-sdl-ttf-glue library to the default library search path.

lispbuilder-sdl-net

SDL_net must be installed in order for LISPBUILDER-SDL-NET work. Windows users can use Edi Weitz's Lisp Starter Pack to install this library. Otherwise, Windows/Mac users should download and install the binaries from SDL_net. Linux users should use their package managers to install the RPM's or DEBs.